Editor’s note: Most of this story has been moved; some of it, archived.

“But it’s daybreak, if you wanna believe
It can be daybreak, ain’t no time to grieve
Said it’s daybreak if you’ll only believe…”

—Barry Manilow

Another year and thinking of him (spring and summer 2021) favorite music played in the evening at the kitchen table for awhile, by him for inspiration or comfort. Only he knows and he’s not here anymore. The range of that nightly play list included Tchaikovsky, Glen Campbell, so many others.

All of life combines in every step.

Aviation, aerospace. Travel, TDYs to military moves. Exploration on horseback, piney woods, clear cold water. Snakes and racking gaits. Hunts and tracking. Full tilt gallop in a meadow, a feist alongside her tongue lolling. She could keep up. Business, hospitality, innovation. Science. Learning from the best. Chapters. Back to Connecticut, hit the ground running. Dreams realized. Doors opening. Fall down, get up. Learn. Rise.

Bethany Airport is now a community recreation open space and field. Trails. Across the street from Lock, Stock & Barrel Feed & Farm, Amity Road.

Connect disparate worlds.

Which brings up a book that is a gem for grief, told with powerful honesty. Will help with navigating a journey that each of us will experience. Multiple times.

Touching Two Worlds: A Guide for Finding Hope in the Landscape of Loss by Sherry Walling.
“In November of 2018, I lost my dad to esophageal cancer and six months later, my brother was lost to suicide. Like the neurologist who gets brain cancer or the autism specialist who gives birth to a child on the spectrum, I was granted the unwanted opportunity to use my own expertise on myself. In Touching Two Worlds, I open the inner workings of my own grief and try to leave a navigational map for anyone trying to find their way in the aftermath of loss.” Published in July 2022; a sample chapter is available at the official website linked here.